4 reps barred for blowing off FINRA probes

FINRA has expelled four more bank repsfor refusing to cooperate with FINRA investigations.

Leona Parsons and Amy Pesina, two former J.P. Morgan reps, were barred for declining to provide on-the-record testimony related to alleged offenses while employed at J.P. Morgan.

Parsons, who worked for both J.P. Morgan Securities and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in Imperial Beach, California, was discharged from the bank in February for allegedly failing to provide the full amount of a withdrawal to a bank customer, allegations she denied, according to her BrokerCheck report.

Pesina, another dual employee of both J.P. Morgan Securities and the bank, worked in Marysville, Michigan, and was discharged from the bank in May for allegedly writing a check from her personal bank account to a third party for which insufficient funds were available, BrokerCheck records show.

FINRA was looking to investigate the allegations made by J.P. Morgan against both Parsons and Pesina in its Form U-5 termination notices.

Parsons worked for J.P. Morgan for 10 years, while Pesina worked there for two. Neither could be reached for comment.

Elizabeth Seymour, a spokeswoman for J.P. Morgan, declined to comment on their expulsions.

FINRA also barred Dallas York, a former Wells Fargo rep, for failing to provide the regulator with the information and documents it requested as part of an investigation into allegations that he withdrew funds from a customer’s bank account without the customer’s knowledge or consent.

York worked for Wells Fargo Advisors in Scottsdale, Arizona, from February 2015 to October 2017, when he was discharged over the alleged unauthorized withdrawal of customer funds, according to his BrokerCheck report.

York could not be reached for comment. Emily Acquisto, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, had no comment.

FINRA also barred Sanjeev Sreetharan, a former rep with Deutsche Bank Securities, for refusing to comply with a FINRA investigation into allegations that he incorrectly valued certain securities in his Deutsche Bank trading portfolio.

Sreetharan, who worked for Deutsche Bank Securities in New York from July 2011 to June 2016, failed to appear and provide testimony in response to the allegations, FINRA said.

Sreetharan declined to comment through his attorney, Jenice Malecki of Malecki Law.

The four reps agreed to being barred without admitting or denying the allegations against them. They join a slew of other bank reps who chose not to cooperate with FINRA investigations, a decision that automatically results in a bar. Since 2017, at least 21 registered reps have been expelled from the industry for blowing off FINRA probes.